Gas Ladies And Gentlemen Analysis

This way for the gas ladies and gentlemen is a collection of short stories following the experiences of narrator and author, Tadeusz Borowski, during his time in the Auschwitz concentration camp. Although the book was first published more than 50 years ago, Borowski's brutally honest, and personal accounts from one of the most traumatizing moments in human history help us gain an insight into modern events. The work of art provides us with a personal account for a moment in history that seems unimaginable yet more relatable in today's society.
One of the things I learnt from Borowski's tales was that human interactions and actions during times of trauma are severely affected. “”. The narrator is forced to an extreme situations due to fear of his own life. This gives us an important insight into the mentality of people during times of war. Fearing for his own existence, Borowski seemed to sacrifice his previous views and as a result implicated himself as part of the camp community. Although these acts happened in the past, reading books like Barowsky's help us better understand the roots and implications of stereotyping and racism in modern society. Much like Barowski (wore shoes of person put quote bro), the acts of many Germans (quote about killing jews) responsible for carrying out the exterminations could have been due to the implications of following a community. …show more content…
Therefore an important take-away from art about traumatic events seems to be the importance of our responsibility to remember the past and learn from it. Relating to a modern society, the writings of Barowski show how remaining indifferent to views from people in power can have extreme drawbacks on the psychology and morality of people during time of trauma. In addition Barowski mentions his believe that “world is ruled by power and power is obtained with money”. As a result, history gives us insights into the dangers of certain political structures and allows us to identify and react to similar acts of discrimination in the future. In addition, the publications of survivors of traumatic events has also allowed us to gain a greater insight into the importance of faith in times of war. Daniel Defoe's A journal of a plague year recounts moments when the great plague of London shows an example of how faith can have positive impacts on society. Defoe had put the decision of whether or not to stay in London during the plague in the hands of God, in addition, he mentions how some people would seek refuge in God as they believed “nothing but the immediate finger of God, nothing but omnipotent power, could have done it”. Faith in a higher purpose allowed citizens to seek …show more content…
Barowski believed that it was the “hope that makes people go without a murmur to the gas chambers… it is hope that compels man to hold on to one more day of life, because that day may be the day of liberation”. He recalls that “nobody cries out, nobody spits in their faces...we obediently go with them to die”. Barowski seems to be saying that due to the people belief that God would save them, they were less likely to revolt against the people of power at the concentration camp. However, looking back, while the religious scriptures promised heaven for the good and hell for the bad, the people of Auschwitz did not deserve to be in their situation and were only discriminated because they were